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Detroit Free Press Staff Writer

Detroit emergency manager Kevyn Orr is moving forward with plans to privatize the city’s valuable parking system, but whether the system would be sold off completely has not been determined.

Orr’s office today asked the City Council’s permission to seek bids to privatize the parking system. The council could vote on the request next Tuesday.

The city wants to give private companies flexibility in bidding on the parking system, which includes seven parking garages, nearly 3,200 metered spaces and a towing operation for abandoned vehicles. A bidder could offer to buy the entire system, for example, it could offer to manage the system, or it could even offer to manage a portion of it, such as meter enforcement.

“This would essentially put a valuation on the asset and also tell us who the qualified bidders are,” said Gary Brown, the city’s chief of operations. “It’s all on the table.”

The potential privatization of the parking system would be the second major city service outsourced this year. In February, the City Council voted 5-3 to approve Orr’s plan to privatize the city’s trash pickup.

City Council President Brenda Jones, who voted against outsourcing waste management, indicated today that she is skeptical of privatizing the parking system.

“I’m probably not going to be in favor of it, but I want to review everything and send all my questions to them,” Jones said after today’s council meeting.

Privatizing the parking system would relieve the city of a financial liability, according to Orr’s office. A consultant for the city, DESMAN Associates, told the city in a memo last week that the city’s parking garages and meters will need $40 million in general fund subsidies over the next 40 years for capital repairs. Privatizing the system could shift this burden to a private company.

Cash proceeds from monetizing the system also would make Orr’s restructuring plan — the subject of a federal bankruptcy court trial scheduled to start Aug. 14 — more feasible, his office said. Money from privatization could reduce the need for bankruptcy exit financing or, if the transaction happens after the city exits bankruptcy, the privatization proceeds could support Orr’s plan to invest $1.4 billion in city services over the next 10 years.

Mayor Mike Duggan supports Orr’s plan to seek bids, according to Orr’s written request to the City Council.

The request also says that bidders must give preferential hiring treatment to any city workers laid off as a result of the privatization. The city will “provide employment opportunities” to those city workers not hired by a parking contractor, according to Orr’s request to the City Council.

Councilwoman Saunteel Jenkins, who represents the whole city as an at-large member, said residents seemed to be pleased with the new trash companies. Rizzo Services began picking up waste on the east side and in southwest Detroit in May. Advanced Disposal is responsible for the west side and started in June.

“We’ve gotten one call that was a complaint about a trash can not being picked up, and they went right back out there the same day,” Jenkins said.

If the council approves Orr’s request to seek bids, it is anticipated a contract would be negotiated and presented to the council by October.